Aminul Islam Molla
Independent Researcher, English M.A., University of Calcutta
Abstract
Satyajit Ray was famous for incorporating dichotomous spectacles on the screen, which he has done with his literary writings as well. The Hungry Septopus is a story in which humanistic behaviours are attributed to a plant called Septopus. This paper is, thus, engaged in the exploration of postmodern reading, and disintegrated human imaginations are creating meanings. The postcolonial analysis of Ray’s writings has always been acceptable; yet, I’m looking for a cohesive meaning within The Hungry Septopus’ meaninglessness. This essay has referred to “The Hungry Septopus” as a postmodernist modern dream. When murder is necessary to save lives, the use of guns plays an expressive role. It is a synthetic discourse since the traits of both plants and animals are combined.
Keywords: Imaginations, Indian SF, Murder, Postmodernism, Septopus
Satyajit Ray is well known for his contributions to the cinematic world, and his literary creations are recognised through the famous character of Professor Trilokeshwar Shonku, an Indian scientist. His genius literary creations are incorporated with scientific discoveries through colourful wings of imagination and adventurous detectives; his stories are filled with a complete amalgamation of natural science with the anthropogenic activities of science. These sorts of unusual amalgamations are frequent in Ray’s work. The Hungry Septopus is one of the less discussed texts apart from the established stories of Prof. Shonku. The existence of something depends on its visibility to human beings, or, in reverse, whatever exists in the universe may not all be visible to us; that simply does not mean the absence of that thing. Science fiction always indulges creative imaginations; Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, in his paper, coined the term or a new concept of ‘Mythologerm’, which he explains:
“… the history of science through the use of the mythic, or to use the mythic as a source of alternative or unknown or advanced science, or to use the mythic as a hinge to elaborate a difference between one kind of sf and another, is what I call the mythologerm.” (Chattopadhyay 437).
Ursula K. Le Guin coined the phrase “thought-experiment” (Guin 156), and Satyajit Ray takes the idea of experimenting with new imaginary species like the Septopus. To embody that idea, he always takes on the characteristics of an explorer or researcher. Here, he brings a character like Kanticharan Chatterjee. This is the finest technique to convey some subjective imaginations in an impersonal manner; Satyajit Ray introduced such characters throughout his books. He always uses these kinds of characters to help him communicate his elaborate fantasies. A historical fact that contributed to the birth of the science fiction genre is the need to explain one’s imagination through a scientific lens. From another perspective, it may be claimed that some level of imagination precedes every scientific discovery. The goal of this article is to investigate the act of combining two distinct organisms, such as plants and animals. This act of overlapping two distinguished existences and their separate characteristics is commonly shared and becomes a unified, separate entity. Septopus is believed to be a massive species with seven arms, but attributing human-like characteristics to Septopus is something radically striking at the root of imagination. What he possessed can be elaborated as secondary imagination in the language of ST Coleridge. Violating natural norms, Mr Ray has attributed a humanistic attitude to a tree.
Satyajit Ray, like an existential philosopher, posed a question mark on the existence of human beings; a similar kind of condition had already been proposed by American writer and painter HP Lovecraft among cosmic variants, which posits the view of insignificance in terms of the existence of human beings in the vast eternity. Similarly, such questions often arise regarding the established meanings of this universe. This paper engages in a postmodern reading of The Hungry Septopus to have answers to those already sorted-out questions. It is hardly believable that this universe was created for us alone. So, this question of existence works as a great source of human curiosity. The Hungry Septopus would hardly be considered a horror story, as there are no such objective correlatives introduced on behalf of Mr Ray. He was writing this in the purview of post-independent India, especially in the 1950s, so there would be social implications predominant in its predicament form. Science fiction is a pervasive part of Ray’s writing career. The history of science fiction in India has been discussed in the paper of Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, which also encompasses various Indian languages to explore the development of the science fiction genre in the country. Whatever Ray has done by mixing up the entities of flora and fauna is a radicalization of human imagination, for it is possible to cross the boundary of possibility in imagination. Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay unfolds the issues of Western and Eastern scientific discoveries and ultimately tries to end the debate in a harmonious unification of both. Science has no country; it’s universal. He brings a hostile approach while constructing the discourse of myth; it advocates having no religion as well, as said in the “Barthesian notion of myth as speech” (Chattopadhyay 439), which he presents through the constructive structure of Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, who favours the invalidation of the form of myth. It no longer remains a myth when it is applied within a community, and he says:
“…applying the idea of myth in the context of sf and with her argument that the reactivation of religious archetypes is a precondition for the “myth” to become a myth. The Barthesian use of the concept of myth frees it from such religion-based arguments, allowing it to become a shared cultural discourse which may or may not have religious connotations.” (Chattopadhyay 439)
It talks about the internationalism of scientific inventions in the age of neo-colonialism. Satyajit Ray and his writings are discussed in the context of how science fiction evolves in India through the usage of various Indian languages. Contrary to other authors, Satyajit Ray enjoys retaining the majority of his works’ settings outside of India, which enables Chattopadhyay to advance the debate via the prism of a postcolonial perspective. Going to search out further, he introduces Jagadish Chandra Bose, the father of Kalpavigyan, who tried to link Kalpyavigyan with the concept of Mythologerm: “… one can notice a shift in the genre of Kalpavigyan, in that the mythological, the unnatural, and the paranormal begin to be reabsorbed into narratives as sources of alternative hidden knowledge.” (Chattopadhyay 445). These sorts of discussions help us to be aware of the essence of myths and imaginations in science fiction.
To be specific, The Hungry Septopus is an endeavour of Satyajit Ray to achieve that alternative “hidden knowledge.” There is another effort to make a discourse of the science fiction of Satyajit Ray from the perspective of “anti-colonial nationalism” (Karmakar and Ghosh 45). The very beginning of the paper sets its tone by pointing out that “the concentration of postcolonial science fiction studies is on the re-discovery of imperialist tropes in western SF and the investigation of anti-colonial resistance in non-Anglophone SF” (Karmakar and Ghosh 46). It can be said that technological innovations, which in themselves expressed, or, as I would rather call it, promoted, modernization, have impacted the creation of Western science fiction. Satyajit Ray has hardly utilised it in both of his films and writings. Mr Ray has always tried to make some sort of comparison between modernity and traditions. Technological fantasy has an upper hand in the Western science fiction genre, which would be an interesting point to be discussed contrastively. But Mr Ray has tried to make this point by presenting Septopus and its appearance, which could be considered a throwing challenge to Western science fiction. He presented the genre, going beyond the influences of Westernisation on the genre of SF. Bengali culture had a lot of crazes for science fiction writing; Sukumar Ray, Premendra Mitra, Satyajit Ray, Leela Majumdar, and others are examples of writers who didn’t use technology to their advantage. Professor Trilokeshwar Shonku’s activities have brought postcolonial identity into the discourse, and his comparison of the peripheral regions of the East and the West masterfully holds the space: “Shonku’s private laboratory in Giridih represents a rural, third-world periphery that threatens Western metropolitan centres’ scientific superiority” (Karmakar and Ghosh 49). Ray’s stories touched the heights of international fame without compromising national sentiment; the settings of Ray’s stories were Egypt, Africa, Asian countries, and European countries, yet he did not indulge in accepting a Eurocentric lens to write. Although he was influenced strongly by Jean Renoir, a French filmmaker, and by the American writing style, filmic spectacles elevate artistic expression. His literary character, Prof. Shonku, is a replica of the inner desires of Satyajit Ray. In The Hungry Septopus, characters like Kanticharan Chatterjee (Kanti Babu) play the equivalent roles of explorer and researcher in the field of Botany. His character is chiefly pondered upon here in the paper. This paper is engaged to discuss The Hungry Septopus alone, where pre-existing ideas of SF will be deconstructed. The existing scholarly works focused on Ray’s works, chiefly through Prof. Shonku and his adventures. Mr. Ray was highly influenced by Italian neorealism, which was due to the devastating condition of the world in the post-World War II scenario and showed the everyday lives of common people through artistic works. Ordinary lives without involving complex narrative, Satyajit Ray expresses all, which throws a challenge against the Western complex projection and narrative of artistic works. In the text, The Hungry Septopus, Kanticharan Chatterjee is trying to promote what he was saying to Parimal: “…no matter how lively your imagination is, what emerges from it can never match the surprises real life can come up with” (Ray and Majumdar 38). So, Satyajit Ray was quite simple regarding plot making, handling of characters, and complex narrative. Postmodernism discourages grand narratives and any structural notion of established rules. At the time he was writing The Hungry Septopus, world literature was changing its form from modernism to postmodernism. People were no longer stuck to any established idea that was set at the beginning of the century or in the devastating background of the First World War. The waves of postmodernism were knocking at the door and shaking the roots of each art form. People were liberating themselves from a colonial hangover, as Frantz Fanon says:
“…national consciousness” over nationalism: “National consciousness, which is not nationalism, is the only thing that will give us an international dimension.” (Fanon 247).
The Hungry Septopus is a modern dream in postmodern thought, where the characteristics of animals are attributed to a plant and we try to make meaning out of it. Postmodernism is against the established meanings of anything; there is no stable meaning or certainty regarding epistemological origins. One can easily rule out the possibility of the existence of such a creature as the Septopus while criticising the story; then it has to be said that there is no such intrinsic reality at all; it’s just an illusion, according to postmodern theory. As we know, postmodern thinkers oppose 18th-century Enlightenment philosophers. Septopus is a revelation from Ray’s charged mind. Mr Ray dismisses the naive realism and brings a septopus-like creature and describes its shape to the readers. Those adventurous discoveries were made by Kanticharan Chatterjee, a leading character and researcher in the story. Ray’s efforts were to touch through the activities of a scientist or an explorer; this is how his subjective imagination became impersonal. Kanticharan Chatterjee is described as a professor of Botany at Scottish Church College, Kolkata. It is now essential to ask whether subjective imagination becomes a source of unique knowledge. As we know, unlike modernism, postmodernism emphasises subjectivity. Postmodernism has hit almost all the possible branches of artistic work in the mid-20th century with its concepts of deconstruction, poststructuralism, and others. Satyajit Ray’s becoming a part of that tradition challenged the Western art of science fiction, which makes a binary model of opposite relationships, in terms of creating an alternative practice of knowledge. The genre of science fiction has often been associated with gothic tradition, but interestingly, in The Hungry Septopus, horror is not at all an intrinsic value.
In Frankenstein (1818), the relationship between Victor Frankenstein and his creature is troublesome, but from the narrative of Mr Ray, we come to know that the relationship between Septopus and Kanticharan Babu is not like that. Frankenstein was the creator of that monster; he was his lord; but he raised the Septopus, whereas Frankenstein left him alone out of fear. Quite contrastively, in The Hungry Septopus, Septopus does not attack Kanticharan Chatterjee; it means he behaves with his master in a good manner. This is a changing form of the master-slave relationship, but first, we need to make a discourse by deconstructing and transforming the central notion of the master and its slave to the notion of a pet and its owner. Septopus is like a pet in Ray’s story. Here, Septopus has enough privileges to get a mound over the integrity of a slave; thus, the previous discourse is re-shaped. Its hunger is something that needs to be quenched, and here we see Kanticharan Babu providing various types of foods. This narrative of providing substance to be metabolised is reshaping the relational status of master and slave. Kanticharan Babu finds the logic behind the food chain and its parallel relationships with one another, which he explains to Parimal:
‘There!’ exclaimed Kanti Babu. ‘That takes care of his dinner. Eating is all most creatures are concerned with. Just think about it. A tiger would eat a man, a man would eat a goat, and a goat would eat anything! Doesn’t it all seem terribly wild, primitive and violent? Yet, that is how nature wills it. Stop this cycle, and the whole natural order would be thrown out of gear.’ (Ray and Majumdar 37)
Satyajit Ray was a master of writing, going beyond tradition; here, each species is consuming a less powerful one. In the story, Ray quite scientifically tries to suggest general rules of nature. A Botany professor is explaining his discovery, where Septopus becomes a substance for exhibition. Kanticharan Babu tries to demystify the notion of separate entities of flora and fauna into a single entity. He was concerned with presenting the contradiction of modernism and traditions; deforestation is a random problem in pre- and post-independent India.
Horror preceded the science fiction genre, yet in The Hungry Septopus, there is no such artificial use of horrific scenes as such; the description of the appearance of the Septopus is, no doubt, weird, yet not horrific as American writer and painter HP Lovecraft had done in his paintings and writings. Satyajit Ray voluntarily avoids objectifying the horrific situation, so the concept of “objective correlatives” is not followed, although horror is a matter of consciousness that comes with the subject of an immoral act. Postmodernism does not care about pre-existing norms; the relationship between master and monster is not of that kind, as colonial or postcolonial texts often offer; rather, it is based on moral value. Kanti Babu is inviting Parimal to kill the Septopus, which connotes him as a serial killer. This coming of Parimal along with Abhijit to the house of Kanticharan Chatterjee is something paralleled with scientific anthropogenesis. It also suggests the moral standpoint of Kanticharan Chatterjee to kill the Septopus, where an explorer is disowning himself from his discovery by destroying it. It is quite fascinating to see that Mr Ray is successful in keeping the gender of that septopus secret, that is why gender could not be an issue at all. From the narrative we come to know, Septopus did not harm Kanti Babu when he said:
‘‘No, I cannot be sure. But I do believe that it has a brain. Besides, I have proof that it can think and judge. I have gone near it so many times, it has never attacked me. ” (Ray and Majumdar 48)
The Septopus can think, which is testified to by observing him not eating poisonous food. Prayag, the servant, sometimes used to tease him; probably, that could be the reason for becoming angry with him. It implies that nature’s gentle qualities can transform into wild creatures when disturbed. Since it isn’t attacking its master, the standing of the master and slave in their relationship has altered. Due to anthropogenic activities, nature is being degraded, and, similarly, nature can become disdainful of human beings. The use of a gun to shoot the Septopus is hypothetically nonsensical, yet the readers are thrilled to see the use of a gun against nothing but a tree! Ironically, guns imply technology-based activity; although it is not a horror theme, the sight of a gunshot is nothing but an act of murder. This act of shooting could be justified by saving lives. So gunshots are working quietly and ambiguously in a dichotomous role: killing one is needed to save another. This murder of Septopus is also justified by the rules of the food chain, as Kanticharan Babu initially said:
“A tiger would eat a man, a man would eat a goat, and a goat would eat anything! Doesn’t it all seem terribly wild, primitive and violent? Yet, that is how nature wills it. Stop this cycle, and the whole natural order would be thrown out of gear.” (Ray and Majumdar 37)
So, one will consume another weak entity, and it is justified in order to run its cycle of existence in nature, which in a way hints at the justification of the act.
After going through the text of The Hungry Septopus, it’s been observed that the transformation of the relationship between the master and his subservient towards the owner and his pet. Horror emanates from something unknown and weird, here in the story, that becomes a pet of Kanticharan Chatterjee. It has also been observed that an explorer is disowning his magnificent discovery in botanical science only for the sake of human lives. Its existence is gradually becoming a threat. Septopus is believed to be a threat. Human existence and its priorities remain foremost valuable to Satyajit Ray via Kanticharan Chatterjee. Ray’s works do focus on the good of human beings; every scientific invention should be helpful to enliven human existence, sometimes through the spellbinding creations of Miracurall by Prof. Shonku or through Annihillin for annihilating. So, killing the probable source of the threat is justified by moral values. Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay is of the opinion “As a genre, sf is open to the incorporation of diverse kinds of thought…” (Chattopadhyay 437). Building the image of Septopus is an effort to demonstrate that aliens are genuinely present around us. Western science fiction frequently tends to look outside of Earth for extraterrestrial life, which is also an assumption-based search. Guns are being epistemologically contradicted in this instance, which is acceptable from a postmodern perspective because it rejects epistemological certainty. Instead, Septopus-like plants are used, where the attribution of human behaviour is found on a plant with human-like faculties, suggesting Satyajit Ray’s brilliant and imaginative power. By challenging earlier works, the history of Indian science fiction is being rewritten through postmodern ideas more flexibly.
Works Cited
Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay. “On the Mythologerm: Kalpavigyan and the Question of Imperial Science.” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 43, no. 3, 2016, pp. 435–58. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5621/sciefictstud.43.3.0435. Accessed 3 Feb. 2023.
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Trans. Constance Farrington. London: Penguin, 1963.Print.
Goutam Karmakar & Tanushree Ghosh. (2022). “Identity, Indigeneity and ‘Mythologerm’: Reading the Stories of Satyajit Ray’s Professor Shonku as Postcolonial Science Fiction.” Comparative Literature: East & West, 6:1, 45-63, DOI: 10.1080/25723618.2022.2081421
Le Guin, Ursula. “Introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness.” 1976. The Language of the Night. Ed. Susan Wood. New York: Berkeley, 1979. 150-59.
O’Flaherty, Wendy Doniger. “The Survival of Myth in Science Fiction.” Mindscapes: The Geographies of Imagined Worlds. Ed. George E. Slusser and Eric Rabkin. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1989. 16-33.
Ray, Satyajit. The Hungry Septopus. The Collected Short Stories. Trans. Gopa Majumdar. Gurgaon: Penguin Books India, 2012. Print.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Penguin Classics, 2012. Print.
Aminul Islam Molla has completed his Masters in English literature and language from University of Calcutta, College Street Campus. He also has qualified UGC-NET and WBSET in 2020. His area of specialisations includes Shakespeare and Film, Cultural studies, Literary Theories and Modern literature. Earlier he has published a paper on Sci-Fi film Alien Vs Predator, He works as an English Counselor at NSOU Study Centre, Bhangar Mahavidyalaya.
